SWINDON TOWN 3 SHREWSBURY TOWN 1: Full-time report

TWO goals in the final four minutes helped Swindon Town to a valuable 3-1 victory over Shrewsbury Town at the County Ground this afternoon.

Nile Ranger came off the bench to restore Swindon’s lead in the 89th minute, after Paul Parry had cancelled out Michael Smith’s opener in the first half, before Smith added a second on debut in stoppage time to help his new side claim all three points.

Town manager Mark Cooper made two changes to his starting line-up handing Smith a full debut in place of Ranger, who had been struggling during the week with illness. Ranger dropped to the bench, where he was joined by latest signing Jamie Reckord. Nathan Byrne replaced the injured Grant Hall and joined Smith and Alex Pritchard in a front three.

Smith took just half an hour to open his Swindon account. Pritchard and Yaser Kasim worked a short free-kick on the right and when Kasim eventually got the ball across goal Smith was on hand to hook a bouncing ball past Chris Weale in the Shrewsbury goal.

Despite having only a small share of the possession in the opening period, the Shrews were not being outplayed and when they restored parity with a minute to go until the break it was well deserved.

Raphael Branco was penalised from bringing down Jon Taylor on the edge of the box and Parry lashed the resulting set-piece past Foderingham.

Asa Hall headed against the crossbar in the 62nd minute and Parry saw another ferocious effort pushed onto a post by Foderingham five minutes later as Shrewsbury enjoyed the better of the chances after half-time.

But in the end Swindon stole all three points late on as Ranger rose highest to nod home from close range after Weale failed to properly clear a Pritchard corner.